An August 6, 2014 Newsweek article reported on Yale University's efforts to reverse Alzheimer's symptoms in mice. According to the article, "Researchers at Yale School of Medicine announced the discovery of a drug compound that reverses the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in mice. The study published Tuesday in the open access journal PLOS Biology identifies the compound as TC-2153, which prevents the protein STEP (STriatal-Enriched tyrosine Phosphatase) from destroying the brain's ability to learn and retain new things. STEP was discovered twenty-five years ago by Yale School of Medicine professor and leading author of the study, Dr. Paul Lombroso."

An August 6, 2014 NBC News article reported on Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller's efforts to raise awareness of Alzheimer's among millennials. According to Miller, "We are extremely lucky that we are in a position to reach a generation that has been somewhat under-represented in the fight against Alzheimer's. When my husband started speaking about our experiences, young people who had lost grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, reached out to us because they felt that someone they could relate to was bringing attention to something that is considered by many to affect only older people. It became clearer and clearer what the mission of Hilarity Charity should be: raising awareness among the millennial generation."

Research, science, and technology

An August 6, 2014 Washington Post article reported that "People with moderate-to-severe vitamin D deficiencies are significantly more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia than those who have an adequate supply of the vitamin in their body, a new study has found."

An August 6, 2014 Science Blog article reported on the link between Alzheimer's and accelerated weight loss. According to the article, "The research team at Weill Cornell’s Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute discovered that the accumulation of a peptide called amyloid-beta inside the brain disrupts the body’s mechanism to regulate its weight, leading to accelerated weight loss years before diagnosis."

Why 2020?

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s has retained its goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2020 rather than endorsing the goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease that calls for preventing and effectively treating the disease by 2025. While we support the national plan and its goals, we believe, as most every family touched by Alzheimer’s disease believes, that preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025 is simply too long a wait for concrete progress. There are promising avenues of drug discovery and development that will, if successful, deliver a means of slowing or deferring Alzheimer's symptoms by 2020. By voicing the urgency felt by so many families, we will pressure researchers and industry to do all in their power to make that happen.